The white-eyes are a

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

, Zosteropidae, of small

passerine A passerine () is any bird of the order Passeriformes (; from Latin 'sparrow' and '-shaped'), which includes more than half of all bird species. Sometimes known as perching birds, passerines are distinguished from other orders of birds by t ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

s native to tropical, subtropical and temperate

Sub-Saharan Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area and regions of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara. These include West Africa, East Africa, Central Africa, and Southern Africa. Geopolitically, in addition to the List of sov ...

, southern and eastern

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologica ...

. White-eyes inhabit most tropical islands in the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, the western

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

, and the

Gulf of Guinea The Gulf of Guinea is the northeasternmost part of the tropical Atlantic Ocean from Cape Lopez in Gabon, north and west to Cape Palmas in Liberia. The intersection of the Equator and Prime Meridian (zero degrees latitude and longitude) is in the ...

. Discounting some widespread members of the genus ''

Zosterops ''Zosterops'' (meaning "eye-girdle") is a genus of passerine birds containing the typical white-eyes in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus has the largest number of species in the white-eye family. They occur in the Afrotropical, Indo ...

'', most species are

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to single islands or

archipelagos An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

. The

silvereye The silvereye or wax-eye (''Zosterops lateralis'') is a very small omnivorous passerine bird of the south-west Pacific. In Australia and New Zealand its common name is sometimes white-eye, but this name is more commonly used to refer to all membe ...

, ''Zosterops lateralis'', naturally colonised

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, where it is known as the "wax-eye" or ''tauhou'' ("stranger"), from 1855. The silvereye has also been introduced to the

Society Islands The Society Islands (french: Îles de la Société, officially ''Archipel de la Société;'' ty, Tōtaiete mā) are an archipelago located in the South Pacific Ocean. Politically, they are part of French Polynesia, an overseas country of the F ...

French Polynesia )Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze") , anthem = , song_type = Regional anthem , song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui" , image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of Frenc ...

, while the

Japanese white-eye The warbling white-eye (''Zosterops japonicus''), also known as the Japanese white-eye and mountain white-eye, is a small passerine bird in the white-eye family. The specific epithet is occasionally written ''japonica'', but this is incorrect due ...

has been introduced to

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

Characteristics

White-eyes are mostly of undistinguished appearance, the plumage being generally greenish olive above, and pale grey below. Some species have a white or bright yellow throat, breast or lower parts, and several have buff flanks. As their common name implies, many species have a conspicuous ring of tiny white feathers around their eyes. The scientific name of the group also reflects this latter feature, being derived from the

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

for "girdle-eye". They have rounded wings and strong legs. Like many other nectivorous birds, they have slender, pointed bills, and brush-tipped tongues. The size ranges up to in length. All the species of white-eyes are sociable, forming large flocks which only separate on the approach of the breeding season. They build tree

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materia ...

s and lay two to four eggs which are usually pale blue. Though mainly insectivorous, they eat

nectar Nectar is a sugar-rich liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries or nectarines, either within the flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists ...

and fruits of various kinds. The silvereye can be a problem in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n vineyards, through piercing the

grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus ''Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years ago, ...

allowing infection or insect damage to follow.

Systematics

The family Zosteropidae was introduced (as a subfamily Zosteropinae) in 1853 by the French naturalist

Charles Lucien Bonaparte Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte, 2nd Prince of Canino and Musignano (24 May 1803 – 29 July 1857), was a French naturalist and ornithologist. Lucien and his wife had twelve children, including Cardinal Lucien Bonaparte. Life and career ...

. The white-eyes were long considered a distinct

Zosteropidae because they are rather homogeneous in

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and

ecology Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...

, leading to little

adaptive radiation In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, alters biotic int ...

and

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the ...

. The genus '' Apalopteron'', formerly placed in the

Meliphagidae The honeyeaters are a large and diverse family, Meliphagidae, of small to medium-sized birds. The family includes the Australian chats, myzomelas, friarbirds, wattlebirds, miners and melidectes. They are most common in Australia and New Gu ...

, was transferred to the white-eyes in 1995 on genetic and behavioural evidence. It differs much in appearance from the typical white-eyes, ''

'', but is approached by some

Micronesia Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...

taxa In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

; its colour pattern is fairly unusual save the imperfect white eye-ring. In 2003, Alice Cibois published the results of her study of

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA ...

cytochrome ''b'' and 12S/ 16S rRNA

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is calle ...

data. According to her results, the white-eyes were likely to form a

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

also containing the

yuhina ''Yuhina'' is a genus of birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus ''Yuhina'' was introduced in 1836 by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson with the stripe-throated yuhina as the type species. The genus name is from Nepali ...

s, which were until then placed with the

Old World babbler The Old World babblers or Timaliidae are a family of mostly Old World passerine birds. They are rather diverse in size and coloration, but are characterised by soft fluffy plumage. These are birds of tropical areas, with the greatest variety in S ...

s, a large "

wastebin A waste container, also known as a dustbin, garbage can, and trash can is a type of container that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" a ...

" family. Previous molecular studies (e.g. Sibley & Ahlquist 1990, Barker ''et al.'' 2002) had together with the morphological evidence tentatively placed white-eyes as the Timaliidae's closest relatives already. But some questions remained, mainly because the white-eyes are all very similar birds in habitus and habits, while the Old World babblers are very diverse (because, as we now know, the group as formerly defined was

polyphyletic A polyphyletic group is an assemblage of organisms or other evolving elements that is of mixed evolutionary origin. The term is often applied to groups that share similar features known as homoplasies, which are explained as a result of converg ...

). Combined with the yuhinas (and possibly other Timaliidae), the limits of the white-eye clade to the "true" Old World babblers becomes indistinct. Therefore, the current (early 2007) opinion weighs towards merging the group into the Timaliidae, perhaps as a

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

("Zosteropinae"). Few white-eyes have been thoroughly studied with the new results in mind, however, and almost all of these are from ''Zosterops'' which even at this point appears over-lumped. Also, many "Old World babblers" remain of unresolved relationships. Whether there can be a clear delimitation of a white-eye subfamily or even a young or emerging family is a question that requires a more comprehensive study of both this group and Timaliidae to resolve (Jønsson & Fjeldså 2006). For example, a revision of the yuhinas and the genus '' Stachyris'' (Cibois ''et al.'' 2002), based on the same genes as Cibois (2003), revealed that the Philippine species placed in the latter genus by some were actually yuhinas. However, when the review by Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) was published, no study had tried to propose a phylogeny for the newly defined yuhinas including the white-eyes. Therefore, Jønsson & Fjeldså (2006) give a rather misleading phylogeny for the group. It appears as if the yuhinas are polyphyletic, with the

white-collared yuhina The white-collared yuhina (''Parayuhina diademata'') is a bird species in the white-eye family (biology), family Zosteropidae. It is found in China, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist montane forests. Ref ...

being closer to the ancestor of the ''Zosterops'' white-eyes than to other yuhinas including the species moved from ''Stachyris'' (Cibois ''et al.'' 2002). In the past, the

Madanga The madanga or rufous-throated white-eye (''Anthus ruficollis'') is a species of bird that was formerly included in the family Zosteropidae but is now thought to be an atypical member of the family Motacillidae, consisting of the pipits and wagta ...

(''Madanga ruficollis'') was included in this family but studies now place it as an atypical member of the

Motacillidae The wagtails, longclaws, and pipits are a family, Motacillidae, of small passerine birds with medium to long tails. Around 70 species occur in five genera. The longclaws are entirely restricted to the Afrotropics, and the wagtails are predominan ...

. The cladogram below showing the relationships between families is based on a study of the babblers by Tianlong Cai and collaborators published in 2019. The cladogram below showing the relationships between the genera is based on the study by Carl Oliveros and collaborators that was published in 2021. The genera '' Apalopteron'', '' Tephrozosterops'' and ''

Rukia '' Rukia '' is a small genus of birds in the white-eye family. Its two members are found in the Federated States of Micronesia on the island of Pohnpei and the Faichuk group of the Chuuk islands. They are: * Long-billed white-eye, ''Rukia lo ...

'' were not sampled in this study. The genus '' Megazosterops'' was found to be nested in ''

Heleia ''Heleia'' is a genus of birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. One species, the spot-breasted heleia is restricted to the island of Timor.van Balen, B. (2017). Spot-breasted White-eye (Heleia muelleri). In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sarga ...

''. The earlier study by Cai and collaborators found a generally similar phylogeny but with ''

Cleptornis The golden white-eye (''Cleptornis marchei'') is a species of bird in the white-eye family, white-eye, Zosteropidae. It is the monotypic taxon, only species within the genus ''Cleptornis''. The golden white-eye was once considered to be a honeye ...

'' as

sister A sister is a woman or a girl who shares one or more parents with another individual; a female sibling. The male counterpart is a brother. Although the term typically refers to a familial relationship, it is sometimes used endearingly to refer to ...

to ''Heleia''. Cai's study found that ''Apalopteron'' was nested within ''Heleia'' with weak support and that '' Tephrozosterops'' was sister to ''

''.

List of genera

The family contains 149 species divided into 13 genera: * '' Parayuhina'' – white-collared yuhina * '' Staphida'' – (3 species) * ''

Yuhina ''Yuhina'' is a genus of birds in the white-eye family Zosteropidae. The genus ''Yuhina'' was introduced in 1836 by the English naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson with the stripe-throated yuhina as the type species. The genus name is from Nepali ...

'' – yuhinas (7 species) * ''

Dasycrotapha ''Dasycrotapha'' is a genus of bird in the family Zosteropidae. It contains the following species: * Flame-templed babbler The flame-templed babbler (''Dasycrotapha speciosa'') is a species of bird of the family Zosteropidae, in the genus ''D ...

'' – babbler and pygmy babblers (3 species) * '' Sterrhoptilus'' – babblers (4 species) * '' Zosterornis'' – striped babblers (5 species) * ''

'' – golden white-eye * ''

'' – white-eyes (2 species) * '' Megazosterops'' – giant white-eye * ''

'' – heleias (10 species) * '' Apalopteron'' – Bonin white-eye * '' Tephrozosterops'' – rufescent darkeye * ''

'' – (110 species including 3 recently

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

)

References

Sources

External links